Brazil's president: Meat scandal is 'economic embarrassment'

Staff and Wire report

President Michel Temer called Brazil’s scandal over the sale of expired meat an embarrassment Tuesday as more countries suspended some meat imports from the South American nation and Montana’s U.S. Sen Jon Tester introduced a bill to do the same for the United States.

“We must take decisive action to ensure no family in Montana or anywhere else in this country is exposed to the danger of deceptive Brazilian beef processors,” Tester, who butchers his own beef on his farm near Big Sandy, Montana, said in a press release. “Montana producers raise the best beef in the world and are held to the highest safety standards. We cannot allow harmful food to come into our markets and endanger our families.”

Tester criticized last August the USDA’s decision to allow Brazilian beef imports to flood America’s markets, saying he had concerns about the safety of Brazil’s product.

Tester successfully blocked in 2015 the importation of Brazilian beef from regions where foot-and-mouth disease was prevalent.

“I applaud Sen. Tester’s decisive action,” Rice said in the release. “The safety and integrity of our beef products is important for ranchers and consumers and we cannot have this dangerous product flooding our markets.”

Hong Kong, Japan and Mexico announced Tuesday that they were halting at least some Brazilian meat imports. They joined the European Union, China and Chile, dealing a major blow to the struggling economy of a country that is among the world’s largest exporters of meat.

Temer sought to play down the scandal, calling it a “fuss” and noting that only three of the more than 4,000 meatpacking plants in Brazil had been forced to close. But he acknowledged the case has caused “an economic embarrassment for the country.”